Date: Mon, 7 Oct 1996 09:43:16 -0400 From: "Vaux, Lenore" Subject: CDC AIDS Daily Summary, 10/07/96 AIDS Daily Summary Monday, October 7, 1996 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National AIDS Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a public service only. Providing this information does not constitute endorsement by the CDC, the CDC Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information. Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD ****************************************************** "Thousands Walk to Raise Funds for AIDS Clinic" "Arrest in Japan's AIDS Scandal" "Editorial: Some Hope on Third-World AIDS" "Teens, Unwed Women Having Fewer Babies" "Mike Smith's Life Is Woven Into the Fabric of AIDS Quilt" "Nationline: Grove Uses Life to Memorialize AIDS" "Inside the Beltway: Too Busy for Bill" "First HIV Baby in Indonesia Reported" "HIV-1 Tat Protein as a Potential AIDS Vaccine" "We're Here! We're Queer! Let's Get Coffee!" ****************************************************** "Thousands Walk to Raise Funds for AIDS Clinic" Washington Post (10/07/96) P. B3; Powell, Michael The AIDSWALK Washington, held on Sunday, raised $2.1 million for the Whitman-Walker Clinic, the largest provider of health care and legal services for AIDS patients. The number of participants in the event has grown over the past ten years, from 400 or 500 the first year to 20,000 this year. Homosexuals and heterosexuals, whites and blacks, city residents and suburbanites participated in the 10-kilometer walk. In his speech to the crowd, Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry emphasized the toll AIDS has taken on the black community, and urged black churches to help fight the disease. In the city, 60 percent of AIDS patients are African-Americans. "Arrest in Japan's AIDS Scandal" Wall Street Journal (10/07/96) P. A18 A former official in Japan's Ministry of Health was arrested on reported charges of professional negligence for his role in the tainted blood scandal. Akihito Matsummura was responsible for ensuring the safety of plasma blood products in 1985, when the government approved heat-treated blood products for sale. Several Japanese pharmaceutical companies are accused of continuing to distribute unheated products until their stocks were depleted. "Editorial: Some Hope on Third-World AIDS" New York Times (10/07/96) P. A16 Campaigns to curb the spread of HIV should be embraced by governments, especially in developing countries, a New York Times editorial says. It holds up a government program in Thailand that requires all sex workers in brothels to demand that clients use condoms as a good example of such a campaign. This program, enforced by the country's network of clinics, is reinforced by the promotion of condoms in schools, military bases, workplaces, and the media. A recent study showed that the campaign has resulted in more condom use and a lower incidence of HIV among newly drafted Thai soldiers. A government condom campaign in Uganda has also resulted in a lower incidence of HIV, but, the editorial says, most governments are reluctant to speak openly about sex and the threat of AIDS. "Teens, Unwed Women Having Fewer Babies" USA Today (10/07/96) P. 6D The birth rate for unmarried women fell in 1995 for the first time in nearly 20 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The agency also reported that the number of AIDS-related deaths in 1995 held steady for the first time at 42,506. "Mike Smith's Life Is Woven Into the Fabric of AIDS Quilt" USA Today (10/07/96) P. 8D; Wilson, Craig Mike Smith, co-founder of the NAMES Project Foundation, coordinated the first display of the AIDS quilt in 1987 and says this year's display, to open on Friday in Washington, D.C., will be his last. The quilt now has almost 40,000 panels, and covers 24 acres. It will be spread out from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument. The first AIDS quilt was 1,920 panels, and began growing as family and friends of AIDS patients made panels to add to the project. "Nationline: Grove Uses Life to Memorialize AIDS" USA Today (10/07/96) P. 3A; Bacon, John The 15-acre AIDS National Memorial Grove in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park will most likely be designated by legislation, expected to be signed by President Clinton, as the country's living memorial to AIDS losses. "Inside the Beltway: Too Busy for Bill" Washington Times (10/07/96) P. A8; McCaslin, John After criticizing President Clinton for his "lack of compassion" for AIDS patients at an AIDS conference earlier this year, actress Elizabeth Taylor refused to take phone calls from Clinton, according to San Francisco's Bay Area Reporter. The newspaper reported that Clinton called Taylor twice at her home a few days after the speech, but that she would not take his calls. "First HIV Baby in Indonesia Reported" Xinhua News Agency (10/06/96) The first case of an HIV-infected baby being born in Indonesia was reported Saturday. The government's tally of HIV cases now stands at 449. Indonesia has 108 confirmed AIDS cases, but experts estimate that up to 2.5 million people in the country could be infected with HIV by the year 2000 if precautions are not taken. "HIV-1 Tat Protein as a Potential AIDS Vaccine" Nature Medicine (09/96) Vol. 1, No. 9, P. 960; Goldstein, Gideon The Tat protein is critical to HIV-1's ability to infect and destroy the immune system, and New York University Medical School's Gideon Goldstein suggests that an AIDS vaccine could be developed to take advantage of this factor. Goldstein notes that because HIV-1 is able to mutate rapidly, the conventional approach to vaccine development is not useful. Curbing the rapid viral proliferation during initial infection is important to protecting the immune system from damage. Vaccination with Tat protein, made by HIV-1's tat gene, provides a novel approach for protection because it targets a critical product of the virus rather than the virus itself. A Tat vaccine could be used for protective immunization in uninfected people as well as for the reduction of viral load in asymptomatic HIV-infected patients. The efficacy of such a vaccine in reducing in vivo viral replication and disease progression is currently being studied in preliminary clinical trials in primates. "We're Here! We're Queer! Let's Get Coffee!" New York (09/30/96) Vol. 29, No. 38, P. 25; Mendelsohn, Daniel The mainstreaming of gay culture over the last ten years is illustrated by the taming of ACT UP's activist tactics. The AIDS cause was embraced by the gay activist community in the late 1980s and provided a forum for the gay culture to display its attention-grabbing style. ACT UP's political demonstrations in 1987 and 1988 had theatrical qualities, using such props as fake blood to create outrageous scenes. ACT UP has lately faded from the public eye, however, and a demonstration at July's International AIDS Conference was given little notice. The group's decline can be attributed to its success. It has met many of its goals, including representation on committees and changes at the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. "Once we were pariahs at the gate, and now we're inside. There was once a time to fling epithets and homilies, but that's changed," explained Jay Blotcher, director of media relations at the American Foundation for AIDS Research and a former ACT UP member. Today's AIDS activist groups do not have the ACT UP-type edge that existed in the late 1980s, when it was clear who was supposed to be offended by the outrageous tactics.